raise your cup to mr buck!

by marjorieingall on April 30, 2010

When it comes to obituaries of quirky people, the NYT can knock ’em out of the park. This is a wonderful remembrance of the guy who created the iconic “We are happy to serve you” Greek coffee cup design that adorns this very blog. Had no idea he was a Jew and a Holocaust survivor. Who am I kidding — I had no idea that cup had a designer at all. I thought it sprang fully formed from silver food carts, like Athena from Zeus’s head.

I chose that cup as an icon for my blog because it is so quintessentially NYC, because it seemed fitting for a ghostwriter and women’s magazine writer (my job is to deliver, unglamorously, and to provide excellent and semi-self-negating service with a smile), and because I really love coffee. I have a tattoo of a diner coffee cup. The old-school white china kind with the green rim around the top and matching saucer, not the take-out kind. But Mr. Buck’s design would make a superb tattoo as well. Where was I? Right. I’m sorry for Mr Buck’s family, and may the Anthora live forever. (ANTHORA! Not amphora. So excellent.) It’s a really, really wonderful icon.